My criticisms of MSJ aren't isolated; I just wonder what's going through the minds of the front office in reference to the general level of play this season from a group of highly skilled, and in many cases very highly paid, talents.
As I've said before, pitching isn't even my main gripe. The baserunning progressed from mildly amusing to maddening to baffling. How did that last for an entire season? OK, so the offending coach is gone--but was that the whole problem?
MSJ of course has the fully justified get-out-of-jail-free card with all the injuries. But my question now...and moving forward...is who has he made better? I continue to maintain that Zeus was fixed by Painter. Diaz has regressed, as has Miranda. Was Scrabble who we expected him to be? Our best hope (IMO) is that people who join who are already 'fully formed'--Leake, Erasmo, etc.--simply ignore what MSJ says and just do their things. So it's said that pitchers like MSJ because he's a battler,...that they would go to war with him?
I would just point out that a lot of people who go off to war never come back.
But even with this, I am not picking on him. Because I wonder if the problem is systemic. I think DaddyO is absoutely right. If the prime goal is thinking alike rather than performing, something's wrong.
We just saw three playoff teams boot their managers. And another, St. Maddon of Chicago, jettisoned his entire coaching staff, perhaps to save his own skin. And he's won 292 games over the last three years.
And we're satisfied with what we've got?